4 ms·

Ask HN: Tips for Startup Weekend

3 points by tylermauthe 14y ago

I am attending Startup Weekend in Calgary (way up in Canada!) as a developer. Anybody from HN going?? Just wondering if anyone has any tips/tricks/suggestions people have for Startup Weekends in general! Note: I am currently a student / novice hacker. I've gathered some of my peers / novice hackers together from school, we are thinking of attending together as a group. Do you recommend us to stick together as a group or fan out? Should we practice anything together / standardize on some kind of platform so we can act efficiently as a team? Other things I've though of: -prep dev machine/environment (prep RoR / NodeJS / Python) -dev warm-up / standardize on platform Any other suggestions would be welcome! Thanks.

ohashi 14y ago
I've been a participant and an organizer for SW and it's great to hear you're excited enough to prepare for it. Let me try to answer your direct questions first: Sticking together should be optional unless you've planned to work on something as a group beforehand and are simply using this event as a time to actually build it. I would highly encourage you to keep an open mind, listen to all the projects/people out there, and pitch your own project (each one of you has at least 1 idea I am sure). As far as practice/standardize, it hinges on the first question. Are you trying to build something specific you have pre-planned? Then, yes. If not, don't. Random tips: Have fun. This shouldn't be a (bad) stressful event. You're getting a chance to create something you want to work on. Be inviting towards others and ready to learn. It can be really awkward, especially for the people who go alone, when many people are in groups. Everyone has their ideas, at least hear people out. Everyone can teach you something if you let them. As a programmer, I love working with other talented programmers, I've learned a lot from these kind of events and being stuck in a room with smarter people than myself for 48 hours. It's a great opportunity to learn new languages, tools, processes, and more. Odds are your project is dead on sunday night. Talk with your group beforehand about expectations, code, and what happens afterwards. Sometimes, people want to continue, sometimes people don't. Agree beforehand, it reduces disagreements later.
- tylermauthe 14y ago
  All awesome tips! Thanks. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2444855 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2444855 - I've seen these tips and what you're saying seems to be aligned with the stuff said in there. I am stoked! Thanks again for your tips.
jlengrand 14y ago
Hey, My last bog post was just about that. Feel free to have a look, you might be able to grasp some ideas :) http://www.lengrand.fr/2012/12/how-we-won-our-first-startup-weekend/ http://www.lengrand.fr/2012/12/how-we-won-our-first-startup-... And enjoy the week-end, it's awesome !
- tylermauthe 14y ago
  Awesome, thanks! I'll take a look

3 points by tylermauthe 14y ago

ohashi 14y ago

I've been a participant and an organizer for SW and it's great to hear you're excited enough to prepare for it. Let me try to answer your direct questions first: Sticking together should be optional unless you've planned to work on something as a group beforehand and are simply using this event as a time to actually build it. I would highly encourage you to keep an open mind, listen to all the projects/people out there, and pitch your own project (each one of you has at least 1 idea I am sure). As far as practice/standardize, it hinges on the first question. Are you trying to build something specific you have pre-planned? Then, yes. If not, don't. Random tips: Have fun. This shouldn't be a (bad) stressful event. You're getting a chance to create something you want to work on. Be inviting towards others and ready to learn. It can be really awkward, especially for the people who go alone, when many people are in groups. Everyone has their ideas, at least hear people out. Everyone can teach you something if you let them. As a programmer, I love working with other talented programmers, I've learned a lot from these kind of events and being stuck in a room with smarter people than myself for 48 hours. It's a great opportunity to learn new languages, tools, processes, and more. Odds are your project is dead on sunday night. Talk with your group beforehand about expectations, code, and what happens afterwards. Sometimes, people want to continue, sometimes people don't. Agree beforehand, it reduces disagreements later.

tylermauthe 14y ago
All awesome tips! Thanks. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2444855 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2444855 - I've seen these tips and what you're saying seems to be aligned with the stuff said in there. I am stoked! Thanks again for your tips.

jlengrand 14y ago

Hey, My last bog post was just about that. Feel free to have a look, you might be able to grasp some ideas :) http://www.lengrand.fr/2012/12/how-we-won-our-first-startup-weekend/ http://www.lengrand.fr/2012/12/how-we-won-our-first-startup-... And enjoy the week-end, it's awesome !

tylermauthe 14y ago
Awesome, thanks! I'll take a look